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Last night, I amazed myself when I discovered I had a real-life, genuine, need for a Farraday cage.

I was trying to install my parent’s new Wireless printer, but unfortunately, it had joined the wrong wireless network and I couldn’t get it to leave that network and join the correct one.

Stupidly, the printer came with a utility so that you could set the IP address, and from there you could then connect to a web interface so that you can set which wireless network to join, and security settings, etc. That’s all well and good, but if it’s on the wrong network altogether, then you can’t set the IP, you can’t connect to the web interface, and you therefore can’t set the security information!

So, I decided to resolve the situation by blocking out the other wireless signal. I attempted to construct a Farraday cage with a Quality Street tin, and then place the correct wireless router, and the printer, inside the cage.

Sadly, Quality Street tins don’t make good Farraday cages.

I eventually resolved the situation by moving the printer next to the router, connecting it to the router with an ethernet cable, printing out the network configuration that the printer had picked up with DHCP, using the utility to set a static IP address, and then connecting to the web interface to force the correct wireless network and the correct security settings.